ATLANTA– Once operating in relative obscurity, the Georgia State Election Board now holds raucous meetings where the public can comment for hours and attendees regularly boo members.
The shift underscores how election administration is becoming increasingly critical and politicized, particularly in Georgia and other states that President Joe Biden carried for Democrats in 2020. Former President Donald Trump remains claim without proof that widespread fraud cost him the election in Georgia.
Georgia’s board, which has no direct role in determining election results, writes rules to ensure elections run smoothly and hears complaints about alleged violations. Democrats and voting rights groups fear that a recently established majority of Republican partisans on the board could push the boundaries of state law with rules that hamper the effective administration of elections and the speedy certification of results.
Democrats made significant gains in Georgia in the 2020 election cycle, winning two key U.S. Senate seats in addition to Biden’s narrow victory. However, the state government remains dominated by Republicans, with a significant faction loyal to Trump.
“They don’t like the way Georgians have voted recently, and they seem comfortable effectively taking away the right to vote — the right to have their vote counted accurately — by botching the administration of elections,” said David Worley, a Democrat who served on the board for 17 years before stepping down in July 2021.
Months after Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defended the 2020 election results, lawmakers from his own party fired him as chairman of the state’s election board, a move many saw as retaliation. new law this year took him completely off the board.
When asked earlier this month about the board’s recent activities, Raffensperger didn’t beat around the bush: “It’s a mess.”
The council consists of five members: one appointed by the state House of Representatives, one elected by the state Senate, one each from the Republican and Democratic Parties, and an independent chairperson elected by the General Assembly or, if the General Assembly is not in session and there is a vacancy, by the governor.
Conservative media personality Janelle King was confirmed by the House in May, sealing Republican partisan control. Dr. Janice Johnston, a retired gynecologist and frequent critic of elections in heavily Democratic Fulton County, was appointed by the state GOP in 2022. And Rick Jeffares, a former lawmaker close to Trump-aligned Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, was appointed earlier this year by the Senate.
“I think when we look back on November 5, 2024, we can say that achieving that 3-2 election integrity-oriented majority on the State Election Board ensured that we had a level playing field to win this election,” Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said at the party convention on May 17, the day King was confirmed.
Johnston also spoke at the convention, which was greeted with cheers and cheers, a sign of how much the election administration is motivating the party’s Trump loyalists.
The other members are Democrat Sara Tindall Ghazal, a lawyer, and chair John Ferviera Waffle House security officer. Although appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, the chairman must refrain from partisan activities, and Fervier does not vote in lockstep with Johnston, Jeffares and King.
McKoon appears to be abusing his party’s “three-person majority.” Before the board’s July meeting, he sent Jeffares two lines to present, along with talking points, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The conservative majority has backed rules that would increase the number of poll watchers that parties and candidates can send to polling stations. Supporters say the measures would ensure meaningful observation, while others worry that too many observers could cause chaos and intimidate partisan election workers.
Other proposals focus on how counties certify vote totals, which must be done before election results can be finalized. Some members of the county election board have refused to certify recent election, saying they did not have enough information to certify the results. Supporters of the proposals want county officials to have access to a wide range of materials before certifying. Critics fear that board members could refuse to certify until they have reviewed all the documents, which could delay the final determination of the statewide results.
The council’s conservative majority has also sought to reexamine the 2020 presidential election. In May, the council voted to censure Fulton County after it emerged that the state’s largest county likely scanned more than 3,000 ballots twice during a presidential recount, narrowing Biden’s margin of victory there.
But many activists say the finding reinforces their belief that the election was flawed and should not have been certified. At the State Election Board’s July 9 meeting, the three most conservative members clashed with Fervier in an attempt to reopen the case, which could lead to further action against Fulton County. A 2021 law gave the state the ability to take over county election boards.
American Oversight, a liberal-leaning watchdog organization, has sued the council about a hastily called meeting on July 12 that only Johnston, Jeffares and King attended, claiming it violated Georgia law by posting a notice for an open meeting. It also claimed that at least three board members had to be physically present in the room, rendering the meeting invalid because Johnston participated remotely.
King argued that it was merely a continuation of a meeting earlier in the week and that this had been rightly noted.
Marilyn Marks is executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, which advocates for election security and transparency and has proposed numerous regulations. She said the board has suffered from “years of inertia” and has failed to conduct timely investigations into election law violations and problems with the voting system. She rejected partisan finger-pointing, arguing that “there is plenty of blame to go around among all factions.”
“The long-standing refusal of the ‘hold-the-line’ faction to act and fulfill their duties made this upheaval predictable,” she said. “It is unfortunate that the new majority, while attempting to address these festering problems, appears heavy-handed and biased because of their failure to seek expert legal advice on regulatory procedures.”
